Foolish decision by BMW. Why can't they just make a beautiful long range EV that on the outside looks like their beautiful ICE vehicles?

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I saw their i3 in person last weekend and I have to say that it is just about the ugliest car I have ever seen. It looks like a fat person sitting down with rolls of fat oozing out around the bottom plus weird windows. BMW has made some beautiful cars but this thing is just awful.
Why waste money developing a "fool cell" car when they could do a real EV?
Hydrogen is very inefficient and will be expensive. All hydrogen now comes from fossil fuels and is less efficient than just burning it in an ICE. Hydrogen from electricity and back through a fuel cell wastes 75% of the energy.

I saw their i3 in person last weekend and I have to say that it is just about the ugliest car I have ever seen.

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Agreed! I have a BMW M3 (yes, I still have a high performance ICE, but frankly it does not get driven much these days). When I took the M3 in for it's last fluid change, I saw the i3 in person for the first time, and IMHO the i3 is butt ugly!

I'm thinking this is more about keeping all options open. If Toyota, Hyundai and the others suddenly do something revolutionary with hydrogen, BMW wants to be prepared.

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There is nothing revolutionary to be done with hydrogen. They can never get the efficiency of an EV. The only advantage they have at the present time is the claimed 3 minute refill, but they don't have the "wake every morning with a full tank" benefit.

It would very much surprise me if BMW used the "i" as in i3 and i8 for both electric (or plug-in hybrid as the i8) and at the same time for fool cell...

Ao anything not-classic-ice is "i"???

I say wait for something more official from BMW before getting all worked up. I don't think they'll do FCVs anymore - I know they tried it for a while with some direct hydrogen combusting engines in 7-series cars. They got like 100 hp from a V12 I think so that project didn't do great...

It would very much surprise me if BMW used the "i" as in i3 and i8 for both electric (or plug-in hybrid as the i8) and at the same time for fool cell... (..)
I say wait for something more official from BMW before getting all worked up. I don't think they'll do FCVs anymore - I know they tried it for a while with some direct hydrogen combusting engines in 7-series cars. They got like 100 hp from a V12 I think so that project didn't do great...

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I don't know about the i-branding (I agree it could be quite confusing for consumers), but BMW and Toyota have a partnership for fuel cells amongst other things:

BMW and Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, will also set up partnerships to create fuel-cell systems, lightweight materials and lithium-air batteries, the companies said today. The two began collaborating in 2011 on lithium-ion batteries and other fuel-saving projects.

If they made the car as reported I think it would be a good seller. I don't mind it being a plug-in hybrid if it really has over 400hp of electric power and could go 78 miles on a charge. Without the supercharger network it would be a hard sell for BMW as a pure electric, and a plug-in hybrid definitely still has advantages for road trips. It sounds like the car the Fisker Karma should have been.